Ultimate Guide to Buying Medical Malpractice Insurance

When your work involves life-or-death decisions, mistakes can be a costly affair. That’s why patients sue doctors for missed diagnoses, prescription mix-ups, failure to follow up, and other professional errors. Medical malpractice insurance covers can be hard to understand, even for the most educated individuals. Many doctors who buy malpractice insurance coverage have many questions about fast time.

Since many doctors will deal with at least one or two medical malpractice claims throughout their work, it is best to understand how each works and ensure you understand how to protect yourself. Furthermore, purchasing this insurance is also a requirement for most physicians, as is required by the law in most states. Here is what to understand about this insurance cover.

Medical Malpractice Insurance Cover Definition

It refers to insurance coverage that protects healthcare providers if an allegation of negligence exists. The cover takes care of some expenses such as:

• Court expenses
• Defense attorney fees
• Settlements

When a healthcare provider lacks malpractice insurance, one might have to pay their expenses, including any settlements from a lawsuit. According to a 2011 research by The New England Journal of Medicine, up to 7.4% of physicians had a malpractice claim, and at least 1.6% had a claim that led to a payment.

What To Know When Buying Medical Malpractice Insurance For A Physician

While purchasing medical malpractice is daunting, it can be easy with the right information. A physician should understand the types of insurance policies available, types of insurers, and ways of evaluating these companies’ financial strength. Additionally, any physician needs to know about their specialty, location, and how the claims history could affect how an individual plans premiums.

What Is The Frequency Of Medical Negligence?

Medical negligence has been an increasing concern in healthcare. It could affect the risk of a patient’s injury, disability, disease, or even death. According to research by the Washington Examiner, over 85,000 lawsuits of medical malpractice lawsuits are filed in the U.S. every year.

Types Of Medical Malpractice Insurance Policies

There are two policies that a healthcare professional can purchase including:

Claims-Made Policy

Most medical malpractice insurance policies are known as claims-made insurance, which means the insurer can provide coverage for most claims from services provided when the policy is effective. That also covers if the claims were reported during that duration of continuous coverage.

Therefore, if a claim is reported after a claims-made policy was canceled, then a physician can no longer cover the claim even though the coverage was in place when the malpractice incident happened. The best part is that these policies have an initial lower premium that increases over time for a period of four to seven years. That’s until the policy gets to the mature rate. After that, premiums change only due to a claim experience or in a situation where the insurance company adjusts its overall rate.

The only way to protect yourself from a situation that doesn’t favor you is to get a tail malpractice coverage. A talk malpractice coverage is the type of coverage that takes care of physicians who have a canceled claims-made policy. It is also referred to as extended reporting coverage. A tail malpractice coverage takes care of the problem by handling claims bought after a claims policy was canceled for all the services while your policy was in effect.

Occurrence Policy

An occurrence policy offers full coverage while the policy is effective regardless of when the claim was reported, even after the policy was canceled or lapsed. Occurrence policies will cost you more than claims-made policies but don’t require tail coverage after cancellation. Medical malpractice claims have a “long tail” since it is hard for insurance companies to predict when settlements could come, and as a result, only a few insurers sell occurrence covers.

Considerations When Buying A Medical Malpractice Cover

You could be one of the few lucky practitioners who’ve been practicing for a couple of years without malpractice insurance and have never had a patient complaint or claim. But the problem with luck is that it tends to run out. Therefore, these are some things to consider when determining what type of insurance you want and who should assist you in getting malpractice insurance.

The Defense Costs

Defending a claim includes court costs, witness fees, legal expenses, and attorney money. The defense expenses can either be outside or inside the limits of the liability for your policy, so it is crucial to sport the difference. The claim will be subtracted from the total liability amount when the defense costs are within the limits. If these costs are outside the limits, then the expenses, depending on the claim, will not reduce the amount of coverage.

Understand Errors That Could Result In Malpractice Allegations

The only way to protect yourself from malpractice is to understand some common errors physicians make, which could result in injury or death. It is the best way to protect yourself and your patients. Some of the issues include:

• Failure to communicate effectively
• Not complying with standards of care
• Dosage errors
• Ignoring the need to review the patient’s full name and medical history before administering care.

Look At The Insurer’s Ratings

Independent physicians should pick insurance with a history and experience within your state and specialty. They probably are if the company seems too good to be true based on their ratings. Avoid those with policies offering lots of one-year discounts since the process will always increase substantially, leading you to pay more. Compare different carriers to differentiate which one offers the best services.

The Consent To Settle

Find out what the policy reads regarding the consent to settle. There are three different forms of consent, the first being full consent to settle. The insurance company cannot settle a claim without the provider’s consent. So, if the physician refers to settle, then the insurer has no option but to carry on litigation.

There’s also limited consent to settle, giving the physician the final word on whether to settle other claims. However, if the insurer recommends that the physician settle for a specific sum, the insurer can only be hooked financially to what they recommend. Finally, there is no consent to settle, so the physician doesn’t control what happens in case of malpractice when it comes to giving a claim or not.

Conclusion

While there are always individual circumstances that result in medical insurance coverage, the tips above are useful to any physician looking for one. Working with a reputable insurance company will save you from hassles, especially if a medical malpractice happens. If it is still challenging, contact us to learn more about medical malpractice insurance coverage and which one best suits you based on your location and practice.